Football: Messi in 'perfect condition' - Luis Enrique

Messi travelled to the United States with Argentina during the international break, but missed both their friendly wins over El Salvador and Ecuador due to a foot injury picked up in Barca's crucial 2-1 victory over eternal rivals Real Madrid a fortnight ago.

"Messi has trained without any problem with the rest of his teammates," Luis Enrique said on Saturday.

"We know he had a knock, but since he has arrived he is in good condition.

"Messi suffers a lot of knocks in every game. I am not going to talk about it again. He is in perfect condition to play." Victory over Madrid last time out handed Barca a comfortable four-point lead at the top of La Liga with 10 games remaining.

However, Luis Enrique insisted that champions Atletico Madrid and Valencia also remain in the hunt for the title and that last season's example, when all three of the title challengers stumbled in the final few weeks of the campaign, should serve as a warning to his players.

"I think that none of the four teams that can aspire to the title will win every game from here until the end of the season. I hope I am wrong and that it is us, but I don't think so.

"All the games are important. In these final stages of the season there are no easy opponents.

"The teams at the bottom need to win and what happened last season ought to be an example to us of what can happen."